"Fukuda Village Incident" Director Tatsuya Mori A feature film made by a true documentary artist brings out the dark side of Japan [Director's Interview Vol.349]

Why hasn't the massacre of Koreans been depicted?

Q: The theme of the massacre of Koreans in the Great Kanto Earthquake has rarely been depicted in Japanese movies. Why do you think this topic has not been covered?

Mori: I think there are many mistakes made by the country, not just the genocide of Koreans, but most of them have not been made into feature films. I'm just guessing, but one of the reasons is that the movie company has decided that such a theme would not be a hit at the box office. I guess they were also aware that protesting was a hassle. That's why I couldn't get any cooperation from the movie company. But even if you try to make an independent film, the production costs of the Korean massacre and the Nanjing massacre are quite high. It's not on the scale that an indie can do, so there's nothing we can do about it. I think that was the situation.

Q: There are many Japanese films that feature the theme of the last war, depicting the terrible things Japanese people suffered, but there are very few that depict Japanese people as the perpetrators. Why are the perpetrators of Japanese people avoided in dramas and movies?

Mori: It's not just movies. This applies to the media, education, and even the atmosphere of the nation as a whole. For example, the war memorials are August 6th and 9th, when the atomic bomb was dropped, and August 15th, the day the war ended. In other words, August journalism. Also, the Tokyo air raids and the Battle of Okinawa. They are making a memorial to the damage they suffered. Germany, another defeated country, is the opposite. When I went to Germany, I was told that our memorial would be held on January 27th and 30th. When I asked, "What day was that?" I was told that the 30th was the day Hitler formed his government and the 27th was the day Auschwitz was liberated. When I heard that explanation, I was a little shocked.

“Fukuda Village Incident” © “Fukuda Village Incident” Project 2023

Japan's starting point is the end of the war, but Germany's starting point is the day they supported Hitler, the day the war era and the fascist regime began. And the other memorial is not for our own damage but for the perpetrators. Therefore, even after the war, people continued to wonder, ``Why did we support the Nazis?'' and ``Why did we massacre Jews?'' However, in Japan, thoughts such as ``Why did we suffer so badly?'' become the focus, and postwar memories are based on recovery. Education, politics, and the media have all been stuck within this framework for more than 70 years since the end of the war. Memories of the assault are not shared. That's why when people talk about the Korean massacre or the Nanking massacre, people think, ``There's no way the Japanese could be such beasts!'' Were all the Nazi leaders who took part in the Holocaust a beast? Adolf Eichmann, whom Hanna Arendt described as a "banal evil," proves to be anything but. Russian soldiers who slaughter civilians in Ukraine should be good husbands and sons when they return to their hometowns. Depending on the environment, people can become beasts or ladies and gentlemen. Many people in Japan do not have this awareness. That's why we want to deny our negative history. This trend has become especially strong recently.

anyway this is entertainment